After a thorough research on federalism and parliamentary forms of government, and a comparative analysis between them and the present presidential system, we have come to realize that Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte's proposal may be an idea whose proper timing has finally come. The present presidential system has long proven itself to be ineffective and inefficient, given the unique geographic, demographic, social, economic and cultural realities that obtain in the Philippines. Let's go federal and parliamentary.
The current system is too-centralized, and exceedingly dominated by Luzon, particularly by the imperial Manila, to the great disadvantage of and prejudice to the Visayas and Mindanao.regions. Local autonomy is not enough, nor its organizational structures effective in addressing the urgent and manifold challenges confronting each region. The President is not accountable to Congress whose members are direct representatives of the people. There are no stable party systems, and chief executives have plenty of opportunities to become virtual dictators.
Federalism is an effective system of government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and a number of constituent political units. The central authority usually focuses on National Defense, Justice, Foreign Affairs and Central Monetary Authority. The health, education and social welfare and services should be devolved to the LGU"s. The constituent political units (in our case, the provinces and chartered cities) should take care of their own trade and industries, economic development, health.
Aside from Federalism, we are for parliamentary form of government, wherein the executive branch derives its democratic legitimacy from the legislative. The prime minister is accountable to parliament and the parliament is accountable to the people. The position of prime minister can be declared vacant by parliament and new elections may be held to replace the current head of government. The prime minister must always enjoy the full confidence of parliament.
Federalism has been tried and tested in the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Venezuela, and India, while such countries like Argentina, Mexico, Indonesia, and Columbia remain presidential. The following countries have parliaments respectively: UK, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, and Poland, Greece, Austria, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. In our case, we propose a combination of a federal system and a parliamentary form.
Perhaps the time has come for the Philippines to adopt a federal system and a parliamentary form of government. Perhaps, the time has come for us to choose, for the first time, a president from Mindanao. Duterte may be the bearer of the idea whose time has finally come.